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Lightning Seeds didn ’ t start playing live until 94 '. Was the band originally put together solely as a studio band ? Actually , the opposite . The band was put together solely as a live band because on the first couple of albums I pretty much played everything . The first albums were recorded in my house , ‘ Pure and Simple ’ and ‘ Life of Riley ’ and all that stuff was recorded at home , I used loop technology on it because I didn ’ t have a band , so I had to , it wasn ’ t really even a choice . I think most of my career has been ‘ not a very grand plan ’, more just instinctive bumbling around . I was always a bit shy to sing live , I had never done it before but I started playing , then I got a band in 1994 , and I got to be alright at it in 2018 !
How did you get into producing before writing and recording ; and which of these excites you the most ? Well , I never wanted to be a producer , ever . It was not something I ever wanted to do and if I do produce someone now , it ’ s quite rare . I ’ ve done a Miles Kane album in the last 15 years but that ’ s about it . I would say I am not really that keen . My friends were in the band ' Echo and The Bunnymen ' and they convinced me to produce them which in the end was a great thing for me , actually a really cool thing , but it sort of projected me on a path as a producer which was hard to then get off and the thing that got me off the path was the song I wrote called ‘ Pure ’ and it was a miracle really . We pressed up to 300 copies and people liked it , it was playing on the radio , I kept pressing more and more until it became a hit known around the world . That enabled me to become a song writer and have a career . I am eternally grateful to the ‘ Bunnymen ’ for giving me that chance and to ‘ Pure ’ for helping me to change tracks really .
Which of your hits mean the most to you ? Well , I think it ’ s a toss up between ‘ Pure ’ and ‘ Life of Riley ’ really . Pure was the first song and it was written about Riley ’ s mum and Riley was written about waiting for Riley to be born and worrying about it and then finished off when he was born so they are both very dear to me .
Thinking of the bands name ' Lightning Seeds ', how did you come up with that , we ’ ve heard it was something to do with the legendary Prince ? Erm well it wasn ’ t directly to do with him , but also it was . I was listening to a song called Raspberry Beret and in the song I thought I heard him say ' hanging out with the lightning seeds ' and I thought who are the lightning seeds , they sound like a cool biker band , they sound pretty bloody cool and then when I played it again I realised he was singing the ‘ thunder drowns out what the lightening sees ’ and I thought well they sound like a cool bunch , so I think I will call my band that ! Prince apparently loved that story , so he told me .
Guilty pleasures ? Well , I am not telling you ! I presume that means musically or is this however I want to take it . I ’ m not that guilty about music that I like , there are a few things that you wouldn ’ t have written on the back of your jacket when you were 15 but I do like all sorts of music . My guilty pleasures in life would be chocolate or ice cream , especially salted caramel !
Lightning Seeds play Liverpool Olympia on November 12th with very special guest - the excellent Badly Drawn Boy .
26 wirrallife . com